I noticed my name is up there on the 'history' section of the NCPA website. So I'll live in infamy even if U-M paintball is slacking lately.

You may want to put aside the history and brush up on CURRENT events.

U of M isn't slacking at all as of late. If anything, they're rocking right now.

- They have a pretty large active STUDENT roster with 15-20 right now.

- They've been consistent in staying both recognized and FUNDED by the school and NCPA tournament active since re-birth in 2003 (I restarted the club at Dearborn and then reached out to the A2 people to do the same).

(As I'm typing this, they have 7 guys on their way to the Fall MICT in McLean, IL for their second event of the season tomorrow).

- They are aided not only by one of the core NCPA sponsors (KEE), but also have dealer hookups with ProCaps (APS/Draxxus), Dye, Bawls, Crossfire, and Allen Paintball. We may go after Eclipse soon because they have a sweeeeet college package program (ask MichTech).

- They are launching a rec-ball club for the Michigan students that are more casual players that may feel intimidated by jumping into speedball. The ultimate goal is for the club to serve as a fundraiser first, then also a feeder/weeder for players into the tourney team.

-This year, they've started hosting an annual NCPA div. AA event. Small turnout this year (Where was Sparty??) but maybe if clubs get it together, it will be better next time around.

BTW, UM took second in the prelim and 3rd overall. Not bad for a roster of legit full-time students that actually take their 4 years seriously.

- They're open to helping other schools in the state lower their costs by offering to put them in touch with the same NCPA core sponsors we have. We feel this will help grow the college scene in Michigan further.

Wayne State was a recent attempt to do that but the school wants players to PAY THEM $40 a semester in exchange for useless services AND NO FUNDING (%*#@!). Don't go to Wayne State. I do as a grad student and it sucks. I may transfer back to Michigan)

And while I'm not jumping in MSU's thread with the intent to flame you, I just can't help the urge to laugh because whenever the subject comes up about paintball at State, it's never anything positive about them other than how good the sand-baggers who don't even go to the school are (see previous posts), but rather about how bad U of M's club might be.

Otherwise, you generally revert down to football for laughs (Hello??? PAINTBALL discussion forum, remember?).

So before you MSU fans start dissing those kids down in A2, you may want to start nagging MSU to work on their program first. Because as MSU stands right now, they couldn't even field 5 students for an event that was less than 70 miles away.

But hey, at least they registered ... and at least Michigan was ON THE FIELD against Toledo.

But all dissing aside and like I said above, we can offer help with lowering costs to get State back up and running if they don't already have it. We like MSU because we both hate Ohio State more. Remember?

And it's not about us making $$ at all. The truth is, we miss MSU. Particularly the way the sun reflected off their hair in the morning sun during the captain's meetings and the returned smiles they always gave whenever our eyes met by destined chance.

But finally, no insult intented. I just needed to get the facts straight.

__________________
"Today, you are no longer butterflies... today YOU ARE MURDERFLIES!"
- Brock Sampson; Venture Brothers

Damn that doesn't match what I've been told, but I did some searching and what I'm finding matches what you're saying more than what I was told up front. As such I can say I'm proud to be a U-M grad and I'm very glad that U-M paintball is still alive and doing well.

I heard lots of crappy stuff but I guess people always like to hit the anti-Wolverine band wagon, and having no reason to doubt these people I believed them.

Go Wolverines, we can accept one down year of football as long as paintball is going strong.

Damn that doesn't match what I've been told, but I did some searching and what I'm finding matches what you're saying more than what I was told up front. As such I can say I'm proud to be a U-M grad and I'm very glad that U-M paintball is still alive and doing well.

I heard lots of crappy stuff but I guess people always like to hit the anti-Wolverine band wagon, and having no reason to doubt these people I believed them.

Go Wolverines, we can accept one down year of football as long as paintball is going strong.

One down year in Wolverine football is never acceptable.

I appreciate the kind words. I put a lot of work into that paintball club, even after I graduated. But it's come alot further because of the current students there.

As players, they seem better now than last year but I guess tomorrow afternoon will tell. If they win a majority of their 8 prelims, they've improved to where the team was when I was an undergrad there (not completely horrible).

Anything lower than 50%...

__________________
"Today, you are no longer butterflies... today YOU ARE MURDERFLIES!"
- Brock Sampson; Venture Brothers

So before you MSU fans start dissing those kids down in A2, you may want to start nagging MSU to work on their program first. Because as MSU stands right now, they couldn't even field 5 students for an event that was less than 70 miles away.

But hey, at least they registered ... and at least Michigan was ON THE FIELD against Toledo.

But all dissing aside and like I said above, we can offer help with lowering costs to get State back up and running if they don't already have it. We like MSU because we both hate Ohio State more. Remember?

And it's not about us making $$ at all. The truth is, we miss MSU. Particularly the way the sun reflected off their hair in the morning sun during the captain's meetings and the returned smiles they always gave whenever our eyes met by destined chance.

But finally, no insult intented. I just needed to get the facts straight.

Shawn and myself wanted to get out of NCPA not because our financial positions, but because we didn't like the league. At the time we would have rather put our cash towards getting a MSU PSP team together. Paying hundreds of dollars for school pride wasn't our priority and why we became MSU paintball team instead of club. The PSP team fell through due to some of our key players having commitments to other teams and we felt that there wasn't enough talent to pursue playing in it.

Why I disliked NCPA:
Fields charging $60 paint prices.
TC paintball was allowed to host tournaments. Anyone shoot the allstar in 05? They dumped old inventory on us and would not refund.
$20-$25 per team was going to Chris for reasons I still don't know.
High entry costs with no cash payouts.
Purdue
Nationals were always located 10 states away.
Every tournament I played had unqualified refs or they were team biased. We even had several problems at our last UofM/MSU open.

If there was NCAA paintball and the school cared about us, I'd be thrilled to have an MSU club up and running. Our school might actually give a damn and support us. Until then, I won't be wasting cash to show "school pride".

As to your tournament this year: You can't blame a few guys for trying to get out there. Seeing as there's no club anymore, what would you expect?

But don't get me wrong, I always appreciated that you always wanted to help our club. Wholesale lists, practices, ect. Sorry that we didn't have the the spirit to play NCPA.

Shawn and myself wanted to get out of NCPA not because our financial positions, but because we didn't like the league. At the time we would have rather put our cash towards getting a MSU PSP team together. Paying hundreds of dollars for school pride wasn't our priority and why we became MSU paintball team instead of club. The PSP team fell through due to some of our key players having commitments to other teams and we felt that there wasn't enough talent to pursue playing in it.

Why I disliked NCPA:
Fields charging $60 paint prices.
TC paintball was allowed to host tournaments. Anyone shoot the allstar in 05? They dumped old inventory on us and would not refund.
$20-$25 per team was going to Chris for reasons I still don't know.
High entry costs with no cash payouts.
Purdue
Nationals were always located 10 states away.
Every tournament I played had unqualified refs or they were team biased. We even had several problems at our last UofM/MSU open.

If there was NCAA paintball and the school cared about us, I'd be thrilled to have an MSU club up and running. Our school might actually give a damn and support us. Until then, I won't be wasting cash to show "school pride".

As to your tournament this year: You can't blame a few guys for trying to get out there. Seeing as there's no club anymore, what would you expect?

But don't get me wrong, I always appreciated that you always wanted to help our club. Wholesale lists, practices, ect. Sorry that we didn't have the the spirit to play NCPA.

All valid points..seriously!! But why become an MSU team at all in any league at that point if the school isn't going to help? Why give them free promotion?

I suppose the biggest difference between MSU and UofM in terms of the NCPA is funding. If the school isn't funding, the NCPA really isn't worth it given the quality issues.

Was the TCP 05 reference the November tourney? If so, yea, I played that one too..paint did suck.

You do bring up a key point though: The school caring (funding). I found out with Wayne recently that all schools do not consider possible media exposure and the old fashioned rivalry as valuable to "school spirit" as other schools might.

In fact, I heard that ISU lost a portion of their funding even though they won the national title last year. Economics aside, that sucks!

U of M Paintball is simply lucky..period. The school gives the club the funding solely based on playing in the NCPA. They could go outside the league and perhaps the school wouldn't mind. But they'd have the same talent problems also because of low practice time. They only stay in the NCPA because it looks good on paper, the teams are evenly matched (when the player requirements are honored), and it's more fun playing another school.

If they woke up next semester and found out their funding was cut, would they still play NCPA?

ROFL!

If I may ask, when/if MSU's powers-that-be were approached for funding requests, what happened? Was it a "no" or were the hoops that required jumping through enough to not make the effort worth it?

As for the quality of NCPA events: I took a huge role of control in the U of M Open by shopping for a decent ref team (MCM did a great job BTW). The paint that FB provided (JT Hydro) was even decent and we knew going into the event it would be ok (Otherwise, I'd been on the phone with ProCaps 2 weeks ahead for a skid). There were no complaints largely because I had taken control over those areas that are traditional pitfalls. You did miss a good one. Maybe next year?

Looking back, it was quite a bit different than slapping the host school's name on the event and letting the field run everything hoping it all works out. <-That's why the NCPA events run like crap, because kids up to their eyeballs in classes can't possibly have time to coordinate an event (duh). The field does it instead but may not care how it goes since it's not really their reputation on the line.

Either the alumni (like me) from the clubs around the country need to step up and give a little back -or- the league needs to take over organization all together if it wants to be seen as legit. PSP does everything, right? Do their events generally work out?

But yea, I do see why you guys don't do it if the events are lousy and the school doesn't fund. I'd say rub UofM in your SAO's faces and see if they budge. I'll try to put on decent events every October in the meantime.

__________________
"Today, you are no longer butterflies... today YOU ARE MURDERFLIES!"
- Brock Sampson; Venture Brothers

Okay, this thread got a little off topic in the middle there but if you are interested in joining the New MSU club for the spring and maybe getting together in the summer if a few of us live together just email msupaintball@hotmail.com Thanks guys!

hey guys, keep it alive..... i am currently a sophomore in highschool, and plan on going to msu for pre vet studies.... also, i have been paintballing for ~7 years, and am just getting into tournament play....

There actually no longer is a paintball club at state, it disbanded a while back. That is why I am starting a new club that hopefully will not disband after I graduate and will continue to run smoothly. I have recieve several emails with people wanting to join, if you go to state and are interested email me at msupaintball@hotmail.com, my name's Mac. Hope to see a few of you on the field next spring!

I am getting some emails in to msupaintball@hotmail.com and it's looking good for this spring. If anyone else wants to get involved, please email me. We are going to start posting fliers around campus early next semester and the more hands, the better. Hope to see you all on the field next spring.